A lot of people actually use VPNs in China (since 2010 even), and some of them call it "加速器" which basically means "booster" (for your internet). Some use it for lower latencies when playing foreign games. The issue is that VPN connections get easily blocked. We aren't really worried about legal issues.
Except for that one time when police (of a certain district, not everywhere in China) knocked on people's doors to inspect their phones for VPNs during the "white paper protest" I believe.